This view of the top 50 centres is a little different. There are centres in here (eg. Melton, Central Coast) which are considered part of the Greater Capital Cities, but which also stand alone as discrete centres in their own right. However most suburbs which are contiguously urban within our larger metropolitan areas are included in the population for that larger centre (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane etc.).

For reference, Australia overall has grown 1.4% in the past year, and 7.9% in 5 years.

It’s also worth mentioning that we’re a long way from the last Census at this point, and so the figures coming out of the ABS on population are less certain – they are all subject to review after the 2016 Census results are released.

Significant urban area

Population June 2015

5 year growth

5 year % growth

1 year growth

1 year % growth

1

Sydney

4,526,479

343,008

8.2%

77,565

1.7%

2

Melbourne

4,353,514

399,575

10.1%

86,796

2.0%

3

Brisbane

2,209,453

190,379

9.4%

33,702

1.5%

4

Perth

1,958,912

235,694

13.7%

26,163

1.4%

5

Adelaide

1,288,681

63,013

5.1%

11,970

0.9%

6

Gold Coast – Tweed Heads

624,918

53,518

9.4%

10,798

1.8%

7

Newcastle – Maitland

434,454

23,938

5.8%

3,964

0.9%

8

Canberra – Queanbeyan

424,666

26,236

6.6%

2,825

0.7%

9

Central Coast

325,082

12,492

4.0%

2,202

0.7%

10

Sunshine Coast

302,122

24,918

9.0%

4,864

1.6%

11

Wollongong

292,388

13,058

4.7%

3,333

1.2%

12

Hobart

209,254

5,808

2.9%

1,594

0.8%

13

Geelong

187,417

12,206

7.0%

3,236

1.8%

14

Townsville

180,333

16,263

9.9%

1,755

1.0%

15

Cairns

147,993

10,842

7.9%

1,359

0.9%

16

Darwin

123,396

10,409

9.2%

1,974

1.6%

17

Toowoomba

114,622

5,926

5.5%

1,044

0.9%

18

Ballarat

99,841

8,206

9.0%

1,332

1.4%

19

Bendigo

92,888

6,910

8.0%

1,122

1.2%

20

Albury – Wodonga

88,949

5,704

6.9%

1,153

1.3%

21

Launceston

86,633

1,049

1.2%

263

0.3%

22

Mackay

85,455

7,425

9.5%

448

0.5%

23

Rockhampton

80,665

5,670

7.6%

353

0.4%

24

Bunbury

75,628

9,593

14.5%

1,563

2.1%

25

Bundaberg

70,588

1,879

2.7%

76

0.1%

26

Coffs Harbour

68,572

2,569

3.9%

561

0.8%

27

Melton

59,500

13,040

28.1%

2,623

4.6%

28

Wagga Wagga

55,820

1,929

3.6%

489

0.9%

29

Hervey Bay

52,288

3,043

6.2%

466

0.9%

30

Mildura – Wentworth

50,011

1,792

3.7%

194

0.4%

31

Shepparton – Mooroopna

49,371

2,303

4.9%

309

0.6%

32

Gladstone – Tannum Sands

49,248

7,226

17.2%

1,232

2.6%

33

Port Macquarie

45,341

2,629

6.2%

493

1.1%

34

Tamworth

42,255

2,626

6.6%

471

1.1%

35

Traralgon – Morwell

40,816

765

1.9%

19

0.0%

36

Orange

40,075

3,087

8.3%

334

0.8%

37

Geraldton

39,825

3,490

9.6%

246

0.6%

38

Bowral – Mittagong

37,897

1,901

5.3%

425

1.1%

39

Dubbo

36,941

1,885

5.4%

342

0.9%

40

Busselton

36,285

5,674

18.5%

997

2.8%

41

Bathurst

36,013

2,685

8.1%

644

1.8%

42

Nowra – Bomaderry

35,920

1,842

5.4%

559

1.6%

43

Warrnambool

33,979

1,288

3.9%

133

0.4%

44

Albany

33,970

2,491

7.9%

356

1.1%

45

Warragul – Drouin

33,386

4,155

14.2%

700

2.1%

46

Kalgoorlie – Boulder

32,797

1,307

4.2%

-139

-0.4%

47

Devonport

30,497

263

0.9%

42

0.1%

48

Lismore

29,413

205

0.7%

43

0.1%

49

Mount Gambier

28,929

737

2.6%

114

0.4%

50

Alice Springs

27,972

– 425

-1.5%

-291

-1.0%

These top 50 centres combined have a population of 19,411,452, or 82% of Australia’s population. So less than 1 in 5 people lives OUTSIDE one of the top 50 centres. And 47% live in just the top two – Sydney and Melbourne.

Based on these numbers, Melbourne would overtake Sydney in only about 8 years – but this version of Sydney excludes the Central Coast, nominally a part of Greater Sydney.

Looking at the growth figures, Melton stands out as the highest growth centre, but it’s really part of Greater Melbourne, being only 40km from the CBD.

In the past 5 years, almost all of these centres have increased. Only number 50, Alice Springs, fell in population. Over the past year it is joined by Kalgoorlie, but 48 of the top 50 centres grew.

All our community profile and economy.id sites have been updated with the latest population figures for your area. But don’t forget, these are all subject to review after the next Census results are released.

.id is a team of population experts, who use a unique combination of online tools and consulting to help organisations decide where and when to locate their facilities and services, to meet the needs of changing populations. Access our free demographic resources here.

Glenn is an ABS data expert with huge intellect and capacity to convert demographic data into profound insights about places. He has contributed numerous blogs and consulting projects covering economic development, housing consumption and affordability, migration, fertility, ageing, role and function of ‘place’, communities of interest and more. Glenn works with over 120 councils bringing the client perspective into the development of our information products. He is a Census data expert, having worked at the Australian Bureau of Statistics for 10 years. If there's anything Glenn doesn't know about the Census, it's probably not worth knowing - so ask Glenn!

37 Responses

Dear Sir:
Rockhampton number 23 on your list[where I live]currently has a 23 % unemployment rate ! or so I’m told.
I’ve noticed many of the houses are now empty. This has happened before 2 decades ago. My point being that given the forced and demerged nature of shires in the region this being an added factor the changes are pretty meaningless. Further it would seem to me that on-line sales makes an ass of all such economic flow and economic traffic. Probably, I would suspect that on-line communication and sales would be more critical to such analysis. An economic e-flow net work would be more dynamic and on-time.
Sincerely
Chris. Harding

Hi Glenn,
The list doesn’t include Mandurah, so I’m assuming we’ve been lumped in as part of Perth metro again, even though we are a regional city with a current population of over 83,000. This is an ongoing issue we have with the ABS, and also with the WA Government – being recognised as a standalone regional city.
Cheers, Tim

Hi Tim – you are correct – Mandurah is part of Perth by the ABS definition. Oddly, the ABS have Ellenbrook as a separate centre, though I’ve removed it from the list here, as I consider it also very much a part of Perth. There are a number of satellite centres near the capitals which are included with the capital cities from a labour market perspective, but for some reason others are not. It seems to be a bit hit and miss.

The Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast are seperate cities and like every city, they have suburbs or smaller districts to make up a city. The places you mentioned make up cities and in that case you would be implying that the Sunshine and Gold Coasts make up Brisbane. However this is incorrect as the Sunshine Coast is made up of similar areas like Noosa, Maroochydore and Mooloolaba and the Gold Coast is made up of areas like Southport and Suffers Paradise.

The population of Logan City Council, has reached 300,667 according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier this month, making it the 5th largest local government area in Australia.

Logan City’s population has been growing at a rate of 2.1 per cent a year and Marsden recorded the greatest population increase.

The top four council areas by population are Brisbane (1,131,191), Gold Coast (537,844) and Moreton Bay (408, 914) all in Queensland, and Blacktown in NSW (325,185).

Mackay’s Local Government Area is around 123,000 in 2016. However that is not considered a “Significant urban area” as the LGA boundary extends well beyond urban Mackay and encompasses a number of other towns. The ABS define a boundary which is pretty much the built up area of the urban population. And that’s around 85,000. Other LGAs are similar – eg. Greater Bendigo LGA has over 100,000 people, but less in the urban area, as it extends well beyond it. On the other hand, areas like Bunbury have urban extent well beyond the LGA boundary, into neighbouring LGAs.

Ipswich certainly is part of Greater Brisbane – it was in the ASGC (prior to 2011, the old Brisbane Statistical Division) and the ASGS (since 2011). It is completely contiguous with the City of Brisbane suburbs around Goodna, and, while there is some rural area on the western side, the vast majority of the population lives in suburbs of Brisbane. This is far less contentious actually than including the Central Coast in Sydney, which is further out and separated by a large body of water.

Well they are actually quite different. Ipswich is about 40km from Brisbane, while Geelong is 70-80km from Melbourne. The nearest bit of Ipswich LGA to Brisbane is Goodna, which is just 26km by road from the CBD. And urban development is pretty much contiguous with the Brisbane urban area. In Geelong’s case there is still a significant gap of about 20km between the western edge of Werribee, and Lara. But most importantly, these things are worked out primarily on a labour region basis. And 40% of Ipswich residents work in the City of Brisbane, with another 5% in other parts of metropolitan Brisbane (excluding Ipswich). In comparison, only 14% of Greater Geelong’s residents work in the Greater Melbourne area, and 77% work locally. This means it’s a much more self-contained labour market, much more like a large regional centre. Ipswich functions as a satellite suburb of Brisbane, and is rightly included as part of the metropolitan area.

The northern part of the NSW Central Coast (the prevous Wyong council area) is growing really fast compared to the southern area, closer to Sydney (the previous Gosford Council area). This is due to the number of national parks preventing house building in the south… yet this is the area under pressure from the Sydney ‘spillover’ due to the housing affordability crisis there. In the north arable and farm land is being developed for estates. It is starting to feel like Greater Sydney. Expect to see the Central Coast boom in the next 10 years.

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